Stocking



April 10, 1928. 1,665,946

0. F. BOEHME STOCKING Filed Jan. 12, 1924 gme'ntoz UZZ O F 130951226 Patented Apr. 10, 1928.

OTTO IF. BOEHME, 0F DOVER, NEW JERSEY.

STOCKING.

Application filed January 12, 1924. Serial No. 685,873.

This invention has for its object to provide an improved stocking by attaching the foot or bottom part of the stocking to the upper part in a novel manner.

Difiiculty has been experienced in uniting the foot part to the leg part in a manner to prevent the foot part from tearing away from the leg part at the line of joinder between said two parts. More particularly difi'iculty is experienced in the manufacture of high grade silk stockings of making a satisfactory connection at the heel and in step part of the stocking, this difiiculty ,being more pronounced in stockings wherein the leg part is made from flat piece goods. The tendency is forthe foot part to be pulled away from the leg part as the stocking is drawn over the foot. 7

It has been proposed to attach the lower foot part to the leg part by interknitting at the heel and toe, the sides between the toe and heel parts being stitched together.

In my invention the heel and toeare interknitted to the leg part and the sides thereof stitched to the leg part or body of the stocking. My improvement consists in interknitting the heel and toe parts to the leg part by slackened courses of thread instead of tightly drawn threads as is customary.

The various features of novelty will ap-' pear from the detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which- Figure ,1 shows and Fig. 2 the completed stocking made in accordance with my invention, and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragment showing the improved manner of connecting the foot part at the toe and heel thereof to the leg part of the stockin 10 indicates the fig or u per part of the stocking, the same prefera 1y, though not necessarily, consisting of flat piece goods cut to form and sewed u the back. 11 is the foot or lower part oi the stocking.

In making the foot part 11, the lower back part 12 of the leg or body of the stocking 1S placed upon the needles of the knitting machine and knitting thread is fed to the an incomplete stocking,

.lmitting needles and thereafter the knitting machine is thrown into operative gear; then, as desired, one or more courses are knitted with the stitches slackened, by dropping the needles, slackening" the tension or in any other manner preferred by the operator; after knitting the said rows of slackened stitches, the regular knitting will be carried on to form the finished heel, sole and toe; that is, the knitted loops of thread a passing through the body portion of the fabric 10 are, not drawn taut but are slackened as shown in Fig. 3. After the heel as has been knitted the fabrication of the foot part 3 is continued as shown in Fig. 1 until the toe portion of the stocking is reached, when the toe part 13 of the upper part of the stocking is placed upon the needles of the knitting machine and the circular part 14 of the foot 11 knitted, the first loops being slackened as at the heel and as indicated at a. in Fig. 3. The stocking is then finished by closing up the toe as at seam 15 as is customary and the upper edges of part y stitched to the body of the stocking as by seam 16. The foot portion of the stocking provided in this invention may be knittedupon a circular machine or upon any other suitable device, and is made from start to finish in one opepation, without transferring the article in any way, but, irrespective of the type of machine used, the union of the knitted portion to the leg or cloth portion is obtained, under this invention, by starting with one or two rows of stitches, knitted slack, which gives a firm hold upon the wherein two parts are knitted or seamed together. It is preferable to use a circular machine for producing the product according to this invention, although other types of apparatus, such as a flat machine, may be used without affecting the merits of the case. i

A stocking made in accordance with the invention described above will not part company at the joinder between the leg and foot part when the stocking is pulled over the foot. not cut the leg fabric of the stocking such as I tends to occur when the foot part is knitted to the leg part by tightly drawn threads and the same holds true with the connection at the toe part.

The entire knitting of the foot part is completed in one operation on a split foot, seamless, full automatic knittingmachine by narrowing and widening and extending-as 10b- The loose courses of thread do required to obtain the shape and size desired and the knitting can be made as strong as the manufacturer desires. "What I claim is:

1. A stocking comprising a leg portion made of fiat piece goods cut to form, a knitted foot portion, and means for connecting said leg and foot portions including slackened courses of knitted thread.

2. A stocking comprising a leg part of fiat piece goods cut to form and sewn upthe to the heel and toeportions, the remainder of the heel, sole, and toe being formed with unslackened courses of knitted thread.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature. OTTO F. BOEHME. 

